Visualization of Speech Prosody and Emotion in Captions: Accessibility for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Users

Caluã De Lacerda Pataca, Matthew Watkins, Roshan Peiris, Sooyeon Lee, Matt Huenerfauth

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

Speech is expressive in ways that caption text does not capture, with emotion or emphasis information not conveyed. We interviewed eight Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (dhh) individuals to understand if and how captions' inexpressiveness impacts them in online meetings with hearing peers. Automatically captioned speech, we found, lacks affective depth, lending it a hard-to-parse ambiguity and general dullness. Interviewees regularly feel excluded, which some understand is an inherent quality of these types of meetings rather than a consequence of current caption text design. Next, we developed three novel captioning models that depicted, beyond words, features from prosody, emotions, and a mix of both. In an empirical study, 16 dhh participants compared these models with conventional captions. The emotion-based model outperformed traditional captions in depicting emotions and emphasis, with only a moderate loss in legibility, suggesting its potential as a more inclusive design for captions.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationCHI 2023 - Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
ISBN (Electronic)9781450394215
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 19 2023
Externally publishedYes
Event2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2023 - Hamburg, Germany
Duration: Apr 23 2023Apr 28 2023

Publication series

NameConference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings

Conference

Conference2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2023
Country/TerritoryGermany
CityHamburg
Period4/23/234/28/23

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Software
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Computer Graphics and Computer-Aided Design

Keywords

  • Accessibility
  • Emotion / Affective Computing
  • Empirical study that tells us about how people use a system
  • Individuals with Disabilities & Assistive Technologies

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